Inset: Khyler Edman (Life Celebration Center). background: Ryan Cole during his trial for killing Khyler (WFTX).
A Florida judge on Monday sentenced a man to death for the murder of a 15-year-old boy who was shielding his sister as the man broke into their home.
The judge upheld the jury’s recommendation, which was decided by a 10-2 vote, to sentence 33-year-old Ryan Cole to death for the 2019 murder of Khyler Edman at a residence in Port Charlotte. Earlier this year, the jury found Cole guilty of first-degree murder and burglary.
Prosecutors highlighted in a document supporting the death penalty for Cole that he was without financial resources and under the influence of heroin and methamphetamine on September 26, 2019. This led him to target Khyler’s home for a burglary, believing he might find drugs or money inside.
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Cole used a tool to gain entry into the carport of the house around 4 p.m. Upon entering the kitchen, he came across Khyler, who was at home with his 5-year-old sister, while their mother was away at work.
Khyler grabbed a chef’s knife to try to protect himself and his sister. A video clip from home security footage mostly captured audio of what happened next.
“During the six (6) second video clip, a voice can be heard stating ‘Come here friend’ and splatters of blood are seen dropping to the floor,” prosecutors wrote.
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Cole stabbed Khyler four times in the chest and abdomen. The boy died on the floor. His sister was hiding under a bed and was not physically injured. Cops later found Cole nearby, his hand bloodied from apparently grabbing the knife and overpowering Khyler. He claimed not to have remembered the attack.
Prosecutors argued that there were several aggravating factors that supported Cole receiving the death penalty. First, the murder occurred during a burglary. Second, Cole’s actions were “heinous, meaning extremely wicked or shockingly evil.”
“The Defendant’s voice on the video clip inside the kitchen stating, ‘Come here friend,’ is especially wicked and shockingly evil, as the Defendant was taunting a young boy,” prosecutors wrote. “The video documents that the Defendant was chasing [Khyler] inside his own home. Rather than leaving the home when the Defendant realized the home was occupied, the Defendant proceeded to grab the knife and repeatedly stab 15-year-old [Khyler].”
But Cole’s lawyer, who argued at trial her client should be convicted of manslaughter and not murder, said in a sentencing memo that life in prison was an adequate punishment.
“A sentence of life in prison is a slow, humane form of justice — one that ensures accountability while replacing execution with a lifetime of reflection and consequence,” public defender Kathleen M. Fitzgeorge wrote. “Life without parole is not freedom. It is not comfort. It is not peace. It is a slow death, carried out over decades in a concrete cell, stripped of autonomy, purpose, and hope.”
In the end, Judge Lisa Porter sided with prosecutors and the jury’s recommendation and sentenced Cole to death. In the Sunshine State, a jury can recommend a death penalty with as few as eight votes, after the state legislature changed the law following a jury’s 2022 recommendation to impose life in prison for the shooter who killed 17 students and staff at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland.
Following Cole’s sentence, prosecutors and law enforcement in a press conference hailed the decision.
“He had this coming,” said Charlotte County Sheriff Bill Prummell. “There’s a special place in hell for individuals like this and he’s getting what he deserves.”
Christina Halston, Khyler’s aunt, spoke with local CBS affiliate WINK.
“Our family is broken. Grief is constant, heavy and unrelenting,” she said. “We have birthdays without him. We have holidays without his smile, an empty seat that reminds us every day what has been taken from us, his siblings, cousins and friends are left trying to understand something that should have never happened as adults, we can’t even imagine it ourselves.”
“Khyler mattered,” she added. “He still matters.”
